Man charged with killing five people: ‘I think you’re looking for me, I did it.’

by CYRYL JAKUBOWSKI

A man was charged with killing five people after he went on a rampage with a handgun at about 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 12, at a Northwest Side condominium building in the 6700 block of West Irving Park Road, according to the Chicago Police Department Office of News Affairs and the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.

The suspect was identified by police as Krysztof Marek, age 66, of the 6700 block of West Irving Park Road. He was charged with five felony counts of first-degree murder, police and prosecutors said.

CPD chief of communications Anthony Guglielmi said that the incident stemmed from a dispute between Marek and his neighbors and “what he’s being accused of is nothing short of savagery.”

Marek was arrested after he was identified as the person who fired a handgun multiple times fatally wounding five people, police said.

Officers responded to calls of shots fired and discovered four people with gunshot wounds in an apartment and a woman on the second floor outdoor walkway also with gunshot wounds and they all were taken to area hospitals where they were pronounced deceased, according to police.

The deceased were identified by the state’s attorney’s office as Tsvetanka Kostadinova, age 43, Ivaylo Popov, age 43, Iskra Pourel-Popova, age 65, David Hanik, age 61, and Jolanta Topolska, age 53.

As the first four listed victims were waiting for another family member to arrive, they sat down around a dinner table in the kitchen to eat when Marek entered through the front door of Apartment 2D armed with a .40 caliber handgun and fired numerous shots striking all four people, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said that Marek exited the apartment and walked to an apartment on the third floor where Topolska lived with her son and that the son walked out the rear door to investigate the noise while his mom was on the couch.

Marek then walked into the unit through the front and pointed a gun at the woman and shot her, prosecutors said.

The woman was able to make her way into the outdoor stairwell with a gunshot wound to the abdomen and down a flight of stairs when Marek followed her and shot her once more in the back of the head, according to the state’s attorney.

Prosecutors listed several neighbors that heard the shots and saw Marek holding a handgun, according to the state’s attorney’s office proffer.

Prosecutors said that following the rampage, Marek returned to his second floor apartment and put the handgun gun on a coffee table in his room and exited the apartment and walked towards Oak Park Avenue and allegedly told responding officers “I think you’re looking for me, I did it.”

The man was arrested on the scene and during the investigation, officers discovered the weapon on the table and two notes written in Polish with words translating to “No Mercy!!!” and “They have to pay for it!!” as well as “Tomorrow!! No mercy, Without any stupid hesitation … Enough!”

The state’s attorney said that Marek lived alone and has financial troubles and that the condominium association was allegedly trying to evict him for not paying fees.

Marek had no criminal background but officers responded to a call of disturbance about 2 months ago in which Marek was accused of assaulting the son of one of the victims that he shot, police said.

“Today’s mass shooting at a condo building on W. Irving Park is devastating and almost unfathomable, except it is happening way too frequently – not only here, but across our country,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in a statement.

The mass-shooting gained international media attention because while Chicago experiences gun violence everyday, rarely of this magnitude, according to published reports.

Editor’s note: Kevin Gross contributed to this report.

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